September 22, 2021 • 6 mins
On this day in 1985, nearly 80,000 people gathered in the rain to watch the first-ever Farm Aid concert at a university stadium in Champaign, Illinois.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that keeps the past alive one day at
a time. I'm Gabe Lousier and today we're looking at
the time when some of the biggest names in music
joined forces to help small time farmers keep their land.
(00:33):
The day was Sunday, September Nearly eighty thousand people gathered
in the rain to watch the first ever farm Aide
concert at a university stadium in Champagne, Illinois, with more
than fifty artists performing, including Lauretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, and
(00:54):
Johnny Cash. Tickets for the show sold out in less
than twenty four hours. In the end, the inaugural concert
raised over seven million dollars for American family farmers. The
idea of holding a benefit concert for US farmers has
a very interesting origin. It can be traced back to
(01:14):
an off the cuff remark made by Bob Dylan during
his performance at Live Aid five months earlier. Live Aid
was a two venue benefit concert for African famine relief,
with shows taking place simultaneously at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia
and at Wembley Stadium in London. When Bob Dylan took
(01:36):
the stage in Philadelphia after being introduced by actor Jack Nicholson,
he surprised viewers around the world by suggesting that some
of the money raised be given to a different cause
than the one he was performing for. Dylan said, quote,
I hope that some of the money that's raised for
all the people in Africa, maybe they can just take
(01:58):
a little bit of it, maybe one or two million
maybe and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on
some of the farms that the farmers here oh to
the banks. The crowd in Pennsylvania seemed to like the
idea well enough, but the lead organizer of Live Aid,
Bob Geldoff, did not. He was furious with Dylan for
(02:20):
his remarks, later writing that quote it was a crass, stupid,
and nationalistic thing to say, And yeah, Geldof had a point.
It was inappropriate to suggest that funds donated specifically to
help relieve famine in Africa be used instead to pay
American mortgages. That seems pretty obvious in hindsight, but in
(02:45):
that moment on stage, Dylan just didn't think it through.
He had chosen the wrong time and place to raise
the issue, but he was right that America's farmers were
in trouble. In the nineteen eighties, the US was facing
the worst economic conditions it had seen since the Great Depression.
Interest rates climbed higher and higher, while property values sank.
(03:09):
To make matters worse, farmers were also dealing with record
setting droughts, which decimated their crops and their income. Thousands
of family farmers went bankrupt and lost their land of foreclosure.
But that wasn't even the worst of it. According to
a study by the National Farm Medicine Center, the number
(03:29):
of suicides among farmers in the Upper Midwest reached double
the national average in the early nineteen eighties. As you
might expect, none of the money raised for Live Aid
wound up going to American farmers. But Bob Dylan's idea
had caught the ear of some of his fellow musicians.
(03:50):
Just six weeks later, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John
Mellencamp announced their plans for farm made appropriate at Lee
given the cause. The lineup for the concert drew heavily
from the worlds of country and folk music. In addition
to Bob Dylan and the three main organizers, there were
(04:11):
genre heavies like Emmy Lou Harris, John Denver Waylon Jennings,
Merle Haggard, and Joni Mitchell. Future farm Aides have stuck
to country and folk artists for the most part, but
that first concert actually featured a much broader range of
musical styles. Lou Reid, Tom Petty, BB King, and a
(04:33):
host of others from the worlds of blues, jazz, and
rock all came together to help support a good cause.
The fourteen hour concert and telethon not only raised millions
of dollars for farm families, it also raised awareness of
the problem and what could be done to solve it.
Three days before the first Farm Aide was held, Willie
(04:55):
Nelson and Neil Young appealed to Congress to improve farming
laws and pass a farm arm relief bill. And they
didn't stop once the first concert was over either. For
years after, the artists continued holding protest rallies and advocating
for farm friendly legislation in Washington, and of course, the
Farm Aide concerts also continued. Willie Nelson thought Farm Made
(05:18):
would only last one year, but a new concert has
been held just about every year since. In that time,
the Farm Made organization has raised nearly sixty million dollars
to support small farmers and promote a more sustainable system
of agriculture. I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully you now know
(05:40):
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
If you liked what you heard, you can follow the
show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i
HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions
for future topics, you can send them my way at
this day at i heart media dot com. Thanks as
(06:03):
always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another day in History class. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(06:25):
or wherever you listen to your favorite show.
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that keeps the past alive one day at
a time. I'm Gabe Lousier and today we're looking at
the time when some of the biggest names in music
joined forces to help small time farmers keep their land.
(00:33):
The day was Sunday, September Nearly eighty thousand people gathered
in the rain to watch the first ever farm Aide
concert at a university stadium in Champagne, Illinois, with more
than fifty artists performing, including Lauretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, and
(00:54):
Johnny Cash. Tickets for the show sold out in less
than twenty four hours. In the end, the inaugural concert
raised over seven million dollars for American family farmers. The
idea of holding a benefit concert for US farmers has
a very interesting origin. It can be traced back to
(01:14):
an off the cuff remark made by Bob Dylan during
his performance at Live Aid five months earlier. Live Aid
was a two venue benefit concert for African famine relief,
with shows taking place simultaneously at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia
and at Wembley Stadium in London. When Bob Dylan took
(01:36):
the stage in Philadelphia after being introduced by actor Jack Nicholson,
he surprised viewers around the world by suggesting that some
of the money raised be given to a different cause
than the one he was performing for. Dylan said, quote,
I hope that some of the money that's raised for
all the people in Africa, maybe they can just take
(01:58):
a little bit of it, maybe one or two million
maybe and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on
some of the farms that the farmers here oh to
the banks. The crowd in Pennsylvania seemed to like the
idea well enough, but the lead organizer of Live Aid,
Bob Geldoff, did not. He was furious with Dylan for
(02:20):
his remarks, later writing that quote it was a crass, stupid,
and nationalistic thing to say, And yeah, Geldof had a point.
It was inappropriate to suggest that funds donated specifically to
help relieve famine in Africa be used instead to pay
American mortgages. That seems pretty obvious in hindsight, but in
(02:45):
that moment on stage, Dylan just didn't think it through.
He had chosen the wrong time and place to raise
the issue, but he was right that America's farmers were
in trouble. In the nineteen eighties, the US was facing
the worst economic conditions it had seen since the Great Depression.
Interest rates climbed higher and higher, while property values sank.
(03:09):
To make matters worse, farmers were also dealing with record
setting droughts, which decimated their crops and their income. Thousands
of family farmers went bankrupt and lost their land of foreclosure.
But that wasn't even the worst of it. According to
a study by the National Farm Medicine Center, the number
(03:29):
of suicides among farmers in the Upper Midwest reached double
the national average in the early nineteen eighties. As you
might expect, none of the money raised for Live Aid
wound up going to American farmers. But Bob Dylan's idea
had caught the ear of some of his fellow musicians.
(03:50):
Just six weeks later, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John
Mellencamp announced their plans for farm made appropriate at Lee
given the cause. The lineup for the concert drew heavily
from the worlds of country and folk music. In addition
to Bob Dylan and the three main organizers, there were
(04:11):
genre heavies like Emmy Lou Harris, John Denver Waylon Jennings,
Merle Haggard, and Joni Mitchell. Future farm Aides have stuck
to country and folk artists for the most part, but
that first concert actually featured a much broader range of
musical styles. Lou Reid, Tom Petty, BB King, and a
(04:33):
host of others from the worlds of blues, jazz, and
rock all came together to help support a good cause.
The fourteen hour concert and telethon not only raised millions
of dollars for farm families, it also raised awareness of
the problem and what could be done to solve it.
Three days before the first Farm Aide was held, Willie
(04:55):
Nelson and Neil Young appealed to Congress to improve farming
laws and pass a farm arm relief bill. And they
didn't stop once the first concert was over either. For
years after, the artists continued holding protest rallies and advocating
for farm friendly legislation in Washington, and of course, the
Farm Aide concerts also continued. Willie Nelson thought Farm Made
(05:18):
would only last one year, but a new concert has
been held just about every year since. In that time,
the Farm Made organization has raised nearly sixty million dollars
to support small farmers and promote a more sustainable system
of agriculture. I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully you now know
(05:40):
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
If you liked what you heard, you can follow the
show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i
HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions
for future topics, you can send them my way at
this day at i heart media dot com. Thanks as
(06:03):
always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another day in History class. For more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(06:25):
or wherever you listen to your favorite show.
This Day in History Class News
Host
Gabe Luzier
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